ars, have we not?--and I believe that this
is the first time you have ever hinted at anything of the sort!"

"One gathers wisdom, perhaps, with the years," he replied. "I am
forty-one years old to-day. I have spent the early hours of this
afternoon in reflection, and behold the result!"

"You have spoken to me before," she said slowly, "of different things.
You have offered me a great deal in life, but never your name. I do not
understand this sudden change!"

"Louise," he declared, "if I do not tell you the truth now, you will
probably guess it. Besides, this is the one time in their lives when a
man and a woman should speak nothing but the truth. It is for fear of
losing you--that is why."

Her self-control suddenly gave way. She threw herself back in her chair.
She began to laugh and stopped abruptly, the tears streaming from her
eyes. The prince leaned forward. He took her hands in his, but she drew
them away.

"You are too late, Eugene!" she said. "I almost loved you. I was almost
yours to do whatever you liked with. But somehow, somewhere,
notwithstanding all your worldly knowledge and mine, we missed it. We do
not know the truth about life, you and I--at least you do not, and I did
not."

He rose very slowly to his feet. There was no visible change in his face
save a slight whitening of the cheeks.

"And the sequel to this?" he asked.

"I have promised to marry John Strangewey," she told him.

"That," he replied, "is impossible! I have a prior claim."

The light of battle flamed suddenly in her eyes. Her nervousness had
gone. She was a strong woman, face to face with him now, taller than he,
seeming, indeed, to tower over him in the splendor of her anger. She was
like a lioness threatened with the loss of the one dear thing.

"Assert it, then!" she cried defiantly. "Do what you will. Go to him
this minute, if you have courage enough, if it seems to you well. Claim,
indeed! Right! I have the one right every woman in the world
possesses--to give herself, body and soul, to the man she loves! That is
the only claim and the only right I recognize, and I am giving myself to
him, when he wants me, forever!"

She stopped suddenly. Neither of them had heard a discreet knock at the
door. Aline had entered with the tea. There was a moment of silence.

"Put it down here by my side, Aline," her mistress ordered, "and show
the Prince of Seyre out."

Aline held the door open. For a single moment the prince hesi